In orthopedic surgical procedures, a surgeon may implant a variety of items for the purpose of supporting tissue, fusing tissue together, or maintaining space between or location of tissue to promote healing or correction of deformity. For example, in the spinal surgical field, rods have been connected to vertebrae via hooks, screws and/or clamps in order to support a vertebral section or motion segment(s) in a desired formation. Some such rods may be bent into a configuration approximating the natural or desired curvature of a section of the spine. It can happen, however, that such rods are not easily bent, or are not able to be used with respect to all sections of the spine or other anatomic locations. As another example, spinal surgeons may use short plates to connect two or more vertebrae in order to hold them together and perhaps to facilitate fusion between adjacent vertebrae. Many types of plates do not match or approximate a desired anatomical placement of adjacent vertebrae, which can result in one end of a plate being somewhat distant from a vertebra, while the other end contacts or is substantially nearer another vertebra.